Intervju / Interview
Just recall Gargantua and Pantagru- el, Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Dead Souls etc. Humour, within them, is just a way to convey a mes- sage. The comedic in a good nov- el is just “collateral damage”, to use this now-modern wartime term. It is good if the reader of my novel laughs, as I will then have achieved what I wanted.” Milenko Lazin Penger – somehow those two sur- names also have an asso- ciation with you. We know you’re not a pigeon fancier, but have you ever searched for a pigeon beyond a novel, whatever that pigeon rep- resents? “I haven’t searched for a pigeon, but I’ve sought out other things. The whole of life is searching. Everyone is seeking something or someone. It’s really nice that you came upon the idea of my hero being reminis- cent of me. I’ve also often fought various bans in my life.” Milenko, as you say, is a picaresque rogue, thus the antithesis of conceit- ed “knightly” characters, but also a good man. Some- one satisfied with the lit- tle things. Why did you also decide to make him a pi- geon fancier? “Man is satisfied with the little things, because he is himself little. Only geniuses, and they are few in number throughout history, strive to achieve something great. Some manage to do so, while some don't. Don Quixote also set great objec- tives for himself, and Cervantes dis- played genius in depicting how a man who strives for a great goal looks. Cervantes achieved a great goal with
his novel, and that’s why he ranks among the few genius writers. Milen- ko Lazin isn’t like that. He isn’t Don Quixote. He won’t be a knight and constantly emphasises that he’s a pi- geon keeper. I published the novel The Bački Don Quixote long ago, and its hero is the antithesis of Milenko the pigeon fancier.” You mock your hero, but you also admire him, be- cause he ultimately cannot agree to the pigeon not fly- ing. Will we come to love him, cheer for him? “When a writer mocks his hero, he also mocks himself. Did Flaubert not say: I am Madame Bovary? The hero always carries at least part of the writer's energy, whether “posi- tive” or “negative”. The writer’s en- ergy is the salt of every work of lit- erature. The literary hero is adorned with something else: conflict with the world around him. The hero of my novel can’t agree to what the whole world believes, which is that pigeons should no longer fly. Every reader must like that, and must rec- ognise their own belief in that be- lief of Milenko’s.” Humour and laughter are very serious matters. And they are also very pro- found and very sad. Ask Cervantes, you say at one point, and this connects to the previous questions and the Spanish “picaro” rogue. Did Cervantes inspire you to write, and is he the rea- son you became a writer? “It’s tough to say which writer influenced another writer and how much. I can’t blame Cervantes, as you say, for me becoming a writer, nor can I say that his novel was my
Marinko Arsić Ivkov, writer Real humour is very sad The winner of this year’s NIN Award dedicated the accolade to all those who believe books speak truth and who find relief from their traumas and pains in them – to every individual reader
inspiration, but it is a fact that Don Quixote is one of the greatest nov- els of world literature.” While we’re on the topic of writers, if some youngsters were to discover literature now, which writers would you recommend to them for some obligatory foun- dational reading? “Today's writer must be ac- quainted with world literature; he must know what society, and which kind, his work is released into. Read- ing great works will bring him back down to earth, encouraging self-crit- icism. It will clip his wings, but he’ll still be able to take flight if he has a gift and a strong impulse to write. While he’s young, a writer should read many works, both good and not-so-good ones. That’s the best school. I recommend only a few of the greatest, which mustn’t be over- looked: Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Sterne, Crnjanski... And to conclude, NGDL is a quest novel, a novel of the road and travelling, and Air Serbia is an active partici- pant in travel. Apart from travelling within yourself, do you also like to travel to some other destinations? “When I was younger, I loved travelling. When those classic trains pulled by steam locomotives were decommissioned, travel lost some of its appeal. Among planes, I most liked the DC-9, which was also in the composition of JAT’s fleet. It ceased flying long ago. And I’m slowly ceas- ing too. I increasingly experience ad- ventures by travelling with my soul, and between four walls... That’s the destiny of every human. Travel is in- grained in man’s very being.”
The book is NGDL. The author is Marinko Arsić Ivkov . The publisher is the Cul- tural Centre of Niš. The prize is the NIN Award for the Best Novel of 2024. The winner is modest, some- what flabbergasted, sarcastic and witty, as is the novel itself, which from the very title hints at an un- usual picture of what awaits us be- tween the covers. NGDL [DLPF] “Don’t let the pigeon fly” poses many questions that each reader will find answers to by themselves, but it brings into focus problems that should worry us, or at least make us think. Every valuable literary crea- tion represents a contribution to the struggle of man to make the world better. This is a struggle that has raged since time immemorial and is never ending – from Hom- er's heroes to the comical hero of Marinko Arsić Ivkov, who harks back to Odysseus and thereby mocks himself ~ say the members of the NIN Award jury. The nov- el’s reflection of itself in the case of Marinko Arsić Ivkov's is bur- lesque, carnivalesque. Through the absurdity of war, the hero searches for his Serbian Highflyer pigeon, presenting to us the tragic world of the ‘90s in a kaleidoscope of hu- mour and cynicism. We began this interview by con- gratulating the author and asking him how it feels to be in the elite company of NIN Award laureates? “I thank you for the congratu- lations. When it comes to the ac- colade itself, I perceive it primarily as the imposing of an obligation to
NGDL [DLPF]. Why an ac- ronym for a title and who doesn’t let the pigeon fly? Will we receive an answer to that question? “The acronym is taken from a military file, which was opened as soon as the hero set out in search of his pigeon. And it is actually that file, with its somewhat puzzling ti- tle, that announces the comical and tragic adventures that the hero will stumble into. “And every reader will find an answer. Of course, there isn’t one answer, there are many, maybe as many as there are readers.” Explaining their selection, the jury emphasised that your work is, among oth- er things, a rare example of a comic novel in Serbi- an literature. Considering that the birds don't fly and the setting is war, will the reader really laugh? “I don’t think humorous nov- els are written to make readers laugh. They often elicit more sad- ness than “tragic novels”, tragedies.
be even more critical of myself as a writer. I also think I’m generally self-critical of my manuscripts; that I haven’t submitted them for pub- lishing lightly. That’s also why I ha- ven’t released many books, whether that relates to novels, short stories or essays. I spent a long time “polish- ing” them, fixing them, and many of them I didn’t even publish. A writer doesn’t need to publish everything he writes. The NIN Award merely obliges me to reinforce this perspec- tive. I think that should also be the purpose of these kinds of awards. The more significant the reward, the more self-criticism, the more “burn- ing” of personal manuscripts.” Did you desire it; does a writer ever complete a work and then think - well done to me, I’ve written a book for an “Oscar”? “I didn’t even consider an award. Maybe I sometimes thought about what the readers would say. A writer mustn’t write for prizes or think about them. Did Dostoevsky write for prizes? And does it even matter whether he received one?”
Sve više doživljavam avanture putujući i svojom dušom, i između četiri zida... To je sudbina svakog čoveka I increasingly experience adventures by travelling with my soul, and between four walls... That’s the destiny of every human
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